High Frequency Trader: Trading In Mere "Millisconds" Is Like, So Last Century

When we made the mistake of saying "milliseconds," instead of
"microseconds" at a Mankoff Group HFT conference the other night,
we were quickly corrected.

"Trading in milliseconds is from like, last century," a trader
told us.

"The new frontier is microseconds," another added.

"We're trying to get to a speed where we can trade in 5
microseconds - actually it might even be down to 3 now."

A microsecond, in case you're wondering, is one millionth of a
second. It's basically not even a measure of time - that's how
fast it is. It takes 5.4 microseconds for light to travel 1 mile
in a vacuum, for example.